When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.  In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.  What can flesh do to me?

Psalm 56:3-4

It had been cold and snowy in the Berkshires, until a sudden warm front rolled in that January night, shrouding the old hills in a thick, velvety fog.  I let Gracie (our Golden Retriever) out after dinner for her evening reconnoiter. I was poking the fire in the woodstove and when I heard her barking rather emphatically out in the yard.  I looked out the window.  There she stood in the mist, turning a slow circle and sounding off into the gloom.  A deep, chesty bark, assertive but not aggressive, slightly muffled, the effort lifting her front paws a bit off the ground with each volley.  “What’s got into her?” my wife, Julee, asked, joining me at the window.  “The fog,” I said.  “It messes with her night vision”.  Goldens have superb eyesight, even in the dark.  But not tonight.  She couldn’t see past her own wet black nose.  “Should I go get her? I asked Julee.  “No leave her.  She’s just doing her job.”  

What a thought!  Gracie was barking out warnings to any would-be-intruders who might infiltrate her yard under the cover of fog, warding off threats, letting the hills know she was on duty, keeping us safe.  What a brave dog!

I wondered if I was that brave – brave when it counted, brave in my faith. I like to believe my faith is clear and unwavering and yet there are times when I can’t see my way, when my spiritual visibility is comprised by the fog of fear or doubt or regret.  It is at those moments that I must stand in the dark and proclaim my trust in that unseen heaven. 

“Gracie is too brave to let a little fog bother her,” Julee said.  I would be brave, too, the next time a spiritual fog found me.

Prayer:  When I grope and falter, when I fear and I doubt, lead me, Lord, through the gloom to Your eternal light.

Written by Edward Grinnan – 2021 Daily Guidepost

Submitted by Sharon Fryer